America might be widely regarded as the Land of the Car, but the truth is that pickup trucks rule the market here — specifically, full-size pickup trucks, vehicles that occupy a vast and lucrative segment between smaller midsize trucks and the hulking, heavy-duty haulers required for towing big boats and horse trailers.

For decades, the King of Trucks in the USA has been the Ford F-150. The F-Series was introduced right after World War II, and ever since the Reagan administration, the F-Series full-sizer has been the bestselling vehicle in America.

Close behind — Avis to Ford's Hertz, Pepsi to Ford's Coke — is the Chevy Silverado. (In fact, when sales of the Silverado and its mechanical sibling, the GMC Sierra, are combined, the General Motors products sometimes beat out the F-150.) Brand loyalty is important; there are longtime Ford owners who wouldn't cross a gully to clamber into a Chevy cab, and vice versa.

But that doesn't mean the segment isn't ferociously competitive. Ford and Chevy have to contend with not just each other, but Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' RAM 1500, as well as backfielders such as the Toyota Tundra and the Nissan Titan.

The challenger, the Chevy Silverado. Matthew DeBord/Business Insider

The point is that Ford and Chevy must keep their full-size pickups competitive if they want to capture the millions of vehicle sales up for grabs every year in the US. In 2014, Ford took a big risk by revamping the F-150 to use more lightweight aluminum in its construction, to boost fuel economy. For the 2019 model year, Chevy followed with its own update to the Silverado.

I drove the new Ford back when it was rolled out, and I was impressed. For the 2018 model year, Ford refreshed the design, so though I had sampled the high-performance Raptor I was overdue to revisit the F-150.

The "agate black" paint job and shimmering chrome highlights gave this pickup a near-luxury vibe. As you can see, my tester came with a short bed. We generally don't get the longer box for our review vehicles.

This high-output variant of the 3.5-liter V6 is something: The turbocharged mill cranks out 450 horsepower with 510 pound-feet of torque. That beats the 5.0-liter V8 engine by a notable margin (395 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque).

Matthew DeBord/Business Insider

Fuel economy is so-so, at 17 mpg city/21 highway/19 combined. But the Raptor-grade motor yields a 0-60 mph time of just over five seconds. Acceleration is sort of staggering for a truck that weighs in at almost 5,700 pounds and can tow 12,000 pounds.

Weirdly, I had trouble running the gas out of my tester, though I didn't take it on an extended road trip.

To summarize, the updated Ford F-150 has improved on greatness. Yes, for $72,000, the F-150 could be a bit more plush. But as a full-size pickup, it has almost no flaws. The brilliance of the high-output V6 is tough to overstate.

Let's have a look. The Silverado could be outfitted with a 2.7-liter turbocharged four-cylinder, a 4.3-liter V6, a 5.3-liter V8, a 3.0-liter inline-six-cylinder diesel — or, in the case of my tester, a 6.2-liter V8.

At full bore, the 6.2-liter V8 makes 420 horsepower with a whopping 460 pound-feet of torque. That's 65 more ponies than the 5.3-liter V8 mill. It can propel the truck to 60 mph in about six seconds, sending the power through a 10-speed automatic transmission. The mpgs are actually respectable, at 16 city/20 highway/17 combined.

Matthew DeBord/Business Insider

The V8 motors have a cylinder-deactivation feature that can drop the engine down to a fuel-sipping two, if all you're doing is humming along at highway speeds. (Chevy calls it "dynamic fuel management.")

Ford's Sync 3 infotainment system is good, but the Chevy's is better. The 8-inch center touchscreen isn't huge, but it is responsive, with a few buttons and knobs to fall back on.

Matthew DeBord/Business Insider

There's SiriusXM radio, plus a full array of USB and AUX ports, and even a 120-volt outlet. OnStar provides 4G LTE WiFi connectivity, and, as with the F-150, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are available.

The LTZ trim level is near-luxe, but not as snazzy overall as the F-150 Limited. This is where I must point out, however, that customers who seek a more magnificent truck can move up to the GMC Sierra Denali.

In summary, the Chevy Silverado is a worthy redesign of the brand's most important vehicle.

Matthew DeBord/Business Insider

In my review, I assessed the new Silverado as follows:

"The Silverado handles well, rides smooth, and, with a robust four-by-four system, should be able to absorb anything that an owner throws at it. The cabin is spacious, comfortable, and, in the LTZ trim, close to luxurious. Although I should highlight 'close' — it could be better, and perhaps should be, as pickup-truck customers have moved far beyond using their vehicles just for work.

"The infotainment system is among the best in the business, so no issues there. The addition of 4G LTE WiFi connectivity makes the Silverado a fine family hauler, as well as a helpful multidevice hotspot on job sites.

"As for all-around toughness ... well, the Silverado certainly looks and feels like you could beat the crap out of it. The styling hasn't undermined that quality. What we have here is a handsome truck.

"Chevy took a conservative path with the new Silverado, and on balance, that was a wise call. Why mess with success? The big question now is whether the moderately ambitious update will be enough to keep longtime Chevy owners from flirting with Fords and Rams. It probably will, but 2019 will be the year that tells that tale.

"Obviously, I couldn't find anything substantial to dislike about the Silverado. And I found plenty to enjoy."

But the better truck is the Ford F-150!

Matthew DeBord/Business Insider

To come to this conclusion, I had to subtract all the bells and whistles from the F-150 — the price difference between the Silverado LTZ and the F-150 Limited was close to $20,000 — and focus more on basics.

By that analysis, it was actually a close call. The knock on the new Silverado is that Chevy didn't update it enough to really challenge the F-150, and as a result, some buyers are being wooed by the equally new RAM 1500. (RAM's incentives are perhaps helping there.)

But when I got right down to it, I decided that both the F-150 and the Silverado accomplished their missions with nearly equivalent aplomb. For bed capacity and towing, both trucks match up closely. My testers each had capable four-wheel-drive systems, and while the F-150 was more lushly appointed, the Silverado wasn't bad — in fact, for $57,000, it was impressive.

I'm not a rancher or a contractor, so I can't really subject the Ford's aluminum frame to everyday tortures, but the word is that it's holding up to all manner of abuse in the field. The Silverado, as I noted in my review, also feels as if you could beat it to pieces.

Tech-wise, the two trucks are neck and neck, but if I had to pick an infotainment system, I'd lean toward Chevy.

So it kind of came down to the engines: the Silverado's V8 versus the F-150's turbo V6. And here's where the Ford took it. The Chevy 6.2-liter is a beast, but the EcoBoost 3.5-liter high-output is a masterpiece. You could almost say that Ford is cheating with this configuration. At no time did I think I was helming an underpowered rig.

Slight edge, then, to the Ford.

But I have to admit that for under $60,000, the new Silverado is truly bringing it. This is the type of argument that goes on endlessly in Pickup Land, but for the money, in this comparison, the Silverado challenged the best F-150 on the market.

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